1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium having an information processing program stored therein, an information processing device, an information processing system, and a map display method, in which a map representing a virtual space is displayed on a screen.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there is technology for displaying a three-dimensional image in a virtual space such as a game space as well as a two-dimensional map representing the virtual space. For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-325973) describes a game apparatus in which a game is played by operating a player character in a three-dimensional virtual space. In this game apparatus, a map is displayed with a specific direction preset in the virtual space being an upward direction (see FIG. 8 of Patent Document 1).
Also, Patent Document 2 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-230263) describes a game apparatus in which a map is displayed while being directed in accordance with a viewing direction of a virtual camera. In this game apparatus, an image of the virtual space as viewed from the position of the virtual camera is displayed and the map is displayed with the viewing direction of the virtual camera being an upward direction on the screen (see FIG. 22 of Patent Document 2).
In an approach as in Patent Document 1 where a map using a specific direction in a virtual space as a reference direction is displayed, the viewing direction in the virtual space does not correspond to the upward direction in the map displayed on the screen. As a result, the user has difficulty in comprehending the correspondence between the virtual space and the map. Specifically, the above approach has problems making comprehensible the viewing direction of the virtual camera on the map and the correspondence between objects located on the map and objects located in the virtual space.
On the other hand, in an approach as in Patent Document 2 where a map using the viewing direction of the virtual camera as a reference direction is displayed, the direction of the map displayed on the screen changes in accordance with the viewing direction of the virtual camera. In this approach, the direction of the map displayed on the screen is not fixed, and therefore it is difficult to comprehend the overall design of the virtual space and the current position in the virtual space. More specifically, the approach has problems making comprehensible the overall design of the virtual space in which, for example, “there is a mountain on the north side of a lake and there is a cave on the east side of the mountain”, which makes it difficult to know the direction to take.
As described above, both the map using a specific direction in the virtual space as a reference direction and the map using the viewing direction of the virtual camera as a reference direction have disadvantages, and therefore a map with clear directions cannot be presented by simply displaying either of the maps.